A Schubert Evening in aid of the Presteigne Festival | Wednesday 6 February

We are delighted to announce that our 2019 London fund-raising event on Wednesday 6 February will be a celebration of the music of Franz Schubert.

This Schubertiade will take place at the beautiful London home of Bob and Elisabeth Boas in Mansfield Street, close to Oxford Circus, and will feature performances from no fewer than 7 Presteigne Festival favourites – the fabulous Leonore Trio (Benjamin Nabarro violin, Gemma Rosefield cello and Tim Horton piano) join forces with Rachel Roberts viola and Ben Daniel-Greep double bass. Whilst glorious Welsh mezzo Rebecca Afonwy-Jones is accompanied by Timothy End.

Our grateful thanks go to Bob and Elisabeth for the use of such a wonderful venue and to the musicians for so generously supporting the Presteigne Festival.

Leonore Trio

The first part of the programme will contrast two of Schubert’s Impromptus for solo piano (Impromptu in G flat, D899 No 3 and Impromptu in A flat, D899 No 4), with a group of eight of his best-loved songs including Ständchen, Du bist die Ruh, An die Musik, Die Junge Nonne and An die Nachtigall, whilst the second half is given over to a performance of one of the greatest of all chamber music pieces, the Trout Quintet.

Rebecca Afonwy-Jones and Timothy End

Artistic director George Vass will be on hand to talk about the 2019 Presteigne Festival programme and, after the concert, there will be an opportunity to chat with the artists over wine and canapés.

Booking details are available via this link – please book early as this promises to be an extremely popular evening.

A big thank you to all who supported the Presteigne Festival this year – a wonderfully eclectic programme of exceptional music-making from some truly amazing musicians with an inspired collection of seven specially commissioned works, engaging talks on music and musicians – not forgetting art exhibitions, literature, film, poetry and, for the first time this year, Open Studios.

Audience numbers continue to remain excellent, with many people sampling the Festival for the first time this year; the central Baltic/Nordic feature, interspersed with music by composer-in-residence Martin Butler and birthday celebrations for Michael Berkeley and David Matthews made for a fabulous musical contrast.

With just under six weeks until the opening night of the 2018 Festival, there is a real feeling of excitement in Presteigne. 50% of the tickets have already been sold, so please book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Situated at the Assembly Rooms, Broad Street, Presteigne LD8 2AD, the Festival Box Office is now open for telephone sales and personal callers. Please do not send Presteigne Festival mail to this address but instead use P O Box 30, Presteigne LD8 2WF

2018 Presteigne Festival Box Office Opening Times

16 July – 18 August
Monday – Saturday, 11am – 2pm

20 – 28 August
Daily, 10am – 5pm

Telephone 01544 267 800

If you wish to book tickets out of Box Office hours, Online Booking is available here

The 2018 Presteigne Festival was launched on 23 April – a bright and varied programme of inspiring Arts events for an ever-widening Festival audience.

This year, the programming focus is on Baltic music, with major works by Pēteris Vasks, Arvo Pärt and Raminta Šerkšnytė marking the centenaries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania becoming independent republics.

The Festival continues to explore British contemporary music, featuring commissions from Martin Butler (composer-in-residence), Huw Watkins, David Bednall, Gareth Moorcraft, Cydonie Banting and Manos Charalabopoulos (winner of a Royal Philharmonic Society composition prize). There are also birthday tributes for two major British composers – the Festival’s President, Michael Berkeley in his 70th year and David Matthews in his 75th.

The Festival opens with the Welsh premiere of Joseph Phibbs’ exciting new chamber opera Juliana, based on Strindberg’s unsettling drama Miss Julie; this forms part of a Nordic strand which encompasses music, art workshops and the screening of three legendary Scandinavian movies.

The dazzling artist line-up includes Festival favourites – the Navarra Quartet, Huw Watkins and the Choir of Royal Holloway, together with some sensational performers appearing at Presteigne for the first time including virtuoso Latvian violinist Kristīne Balanas, fabulous British soprano Ruby Hughes and outstanding pianist Joseph Tong.

Martin Butler has been announced as composer-in-residence at the 2018 Presteigne Festival.

Born in Romsey, Hampshire in 1960, Martin studied at Manchester University, the Royal Northern College of Music and Princeton University, USA. From 1998-99 he was composer-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He is currently Professor of Music at the University of Sussex.

Martin’s works are widely performed and broadcast both in the UK and abroad. He has received commissions from, among others, the BBC Proms, the London Sinfonietta, the Schubert Ensemble and the Brighton, Cheltenham, Canterbury, Norfolk and Norwich, and Presteigne festivals. His opera A Better Place was premiered by ENO in July 2001 and the same year, Two Rivers was premiered by the Oxford Bach Choir.

More recently he was Composer in Focus with the Brighton Philharmonic and remains pianist with the innovative improvising group, notes inegales and co-director of Club Inégales in London. Regular Presteigne Festival attenders will remember Martin for the wonderful Saxophone Concerto he wrote in 2009 for Australian virtuoso Amy Dickson.

He is currently hard at work on his new commission for piano and chamber orchestra, Concertante Dances, which he will premiere at the Presteigne Festival as piano soloist with the Festival Orchestra under artistic director George Vass at the final concert on Tuesday 28 August.

We are delighted to announce that two artists, hugely popular with Presteigne Festival audiences, cellist Gemma Rosefield and pianist Tim Horton, will join forces for our London fundraising event on Tuesday 30 January2018 at the beautiful London home of Bob and Elisabeth Boas in Mansfield Street close to Oxford Circus.

Our grateful thanks go to Bob and Elisabeth for the use of such a beautiful venue and to Gemma and Tim for offering such a fabulous and wide-ranging programme.

The concert opens and closes with two great cello sonatas of the twentieth century – Debussy’s beautifully compact sonata of 1915, written at the end of the great French composer’s life and Rachmaninov’s earlier bitter sweet Romantic masterpiece composed in 1901, when Rachmaninov was still living in Russia.

The programme is completed with contemporary composer James Francis Brown’s Shakespeare-based Prospero’s Isle, a work commissed by the Hampstead and Highgate Festival and first heard there in May 2006, performed by Gemma Rosefield (the dedicatee) and Gretel Dowdeswell.

Thank you so much for supporting the 2017 Presteigne Festival; it was a truly awe inspiring six days of superb musical performance, fantastic new commissions, amazing exhibitions and hugely entertaining talks on music, literature, film and the counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s.

Audiences have increased considerably over the last two years and this year the Festival sold over 81% of all available tickets, added to which we had fabulous sunshine every day and George Vass celebrated both his 60th birthday and 25 years as artistic director …

Press reviews of concert performances can be found by following the links below:

With less than six weeks until the opening night of the 2017 Festival, there is an expectant feeling of excitement in Presteigne. Nearly 50% of the tickets have been sold, so please book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Situated at the Assembly Rooms, Broad Street, Presteigne LD8 2AD, the Festival Box Office is now open for telephone sales and personal callers. Please do not send Presteigne Festival mail to this address but instead use P O Box 30, Presteigne LD8 2WF

2017 Presteigne Festival Box Office Opening Times

17 July – 19 August
Monday – Saturday, 11am – 2pm

21 – 29 August
Daily, 10am – 5pm

Telephone 01544 267 800

If you wish to book tickets out of Box Office hours, Online Booking is available here

We are delighted to announce that two popular Presteigne Festival artists, violinist Sara Trickey and pianist ClareHammond, join forces for our London fundraising event on Wednesday 17 May.

The programme features two great German violin sonatas – the dark-hued, intense Brahms D minor and one of Beethoven’s most popular works, the bright, uplifting ‘Spring’ sonata. Stravinsky makes an appearance in the shape of the joyous Suite Italienne, arrangements for violin and piano of movements from his delightful neo-classical ballet, Pulcinella.

The programme is completed with David Matthews’ Adonis, a work commissed by the Presteigne Festival and first performed at the 2007 Festival by Sara Trickey (the dedicatee) and Gretel Dowdeswell.

Artistic director George Vass will be on hand to introduce the 2017 Presteigne Festival programme and, after the concert, there will be an opportunity to chat with the artists over wine and canapés. Our grateful thanks go once again to Bob and Elisabeth Boas for allowing us to hold this event at their delightful central London home.